Once Upon a Time Season 3 Spoilers: Rumplestiltskin's Daddy Issues and "Nasty Habits"

On Once Upon a Time, every character has an aire of mystery, but no one is more perplexing than Rumplestiltskin. Throughout the show’s two seasons, we’ve only seen snippets of his life before becoming the Dark One, and those have lessened as the show focused more on present-day Storybrooke than Fairy Tale land in Season 2.

In Season 3, however, everything will change as Rumple has a few episodes dedicated to his full backstory — including, but not limited to, where his daddy issues stem from.

We recently discovered that Episode 8 will show us Rumple’s father, Colin, who is “dissatisfied, self-centered, and ruthless,” and he’ll return in Episode 11 (aka the “finale” of Part 1 of Season 3). While his father will take eight episodes to pop up, Rumple’s backstory will be unveiled in Episode 4.

“Episode 4 is called ‘Nasty Habits,’ and that will be his first backstory that we see this year,” co-creator Eddy Kitsis told reporters at a Q&A on September 24. When asked about his “daddy issues,” Eddy noted that Rumplestiltskin “definitely seems to have them,” as they’ve “hinted that his father is a coward, his father's name was something that haunted him, and that his father left him.”

These issues will surface in present day, too. “We see those issues have played themselves out in his relationship with his son [Baelfire], so … whatever happens to Rumpelstiltskin in the past is really kind of creating a lot of the problems that he's dealing with today this year,” co-creator Adam Horowitz added.

“This is a man who wants to break the cycle of his past. He wants to be a good father, but it's like, that quote, ‘I can resist everything but temptation.’ That's also his weakness,” Eddy added, to which Adam stressed, “He's getting drawn into doing terrible things.”

One of those truly despicable things will be seen in the first two episodes, leaving fans to wonder if it’s because he’s the Dark One, because of his “daddy issues,” or for another reason entirely. Either way, we’re excited to see what happens next with Rumple — “nasty habits” included.

Do you think Rumple can ever be redeemed? What do you want to see from his father, Colin? Sound off below, and catch the Once Upon a Time Season 3 premiere on Sunday, September 29 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.